1.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time

2.
Franciscans
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns

3.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle

4.
Dublin Castle
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Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the seat of the United Kingdom governments administration in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. The Castle served as the seat of English, then later British government of Ireland under the Lordship of Ireland, the Kingdom of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, the complex was handed over to the newly formed Provisional Government led by Michael Collins. The castle today is a major tourist attraction and conferencing destination, the building is also used for State dinners and most significantly, the inauguration of the presidents of Ireland. Dublin Castle fulfilled a number of roles through its history, the second in command in the Dublin Castle administration, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, also had his offices there. Over the years parliament and law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues and it also served as a military garrison. Castle Catholic was a term for Catholics who were considered to be overly friendly with or supportive of the British administration. Upon formation of the Free State in 1922, the castle assumed for a decade the role of the Four Courts on the Liffey quays which had been damaged during the Civil War. It was decided in 1938 that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde would take place in the castle, two dedicated conference facilities, The Hibernia Conference Centre and The Printworks, were install for the European Presidencies of 1990 and 2013. Sited to the south-east of Norman Dublin, the formed one corner of the outer perimeter of the city. The city wall directly abutted the castles northeast Powder Tower, extending north, in 1620 the English-born judge Luke Gernon was greatly impressed by the wall, a huge and mighty wall, foursquare, and of incredible thickness. The Poddle was diverted into the city through archways where the walls adjoined the castle, one of these archways and part of the wall survive buried underneath the 18th-century buildings, and are open to public inspection. The building survived until 1673, when it was damaged by fire, the Court of Castle Chamber, the Irish counterpart to the English Star Chamber, sat in Dublin Castle in a room which was specially built for it about 1570. The Castle sustained severe damage in 1684. Extensive rebuilding transformed it from medieval fortress to Georgian palace, United Irishmen General Joseph Holt, a participant in the 1798 Rising, was incarcerated in the Bermingham Tower before being transported to New South Wales in 1799. In 1884 officers at the Castle were at the centre of a homosexual scandal incited by the Irish Nationalist politician William OBrien through his newspaper United Ireland. In 1907 the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the Castle, suspicion fell upon the Officer of Arms, Sir Arthur Vicars, but rumours of his homosexuality and links to socially important gay men in London, may have compromised the investigation

5.
Oliver Cromwell
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Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader and later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Cromwell was born into the gentry, albeit to a family descended from the sister of King Henry VIIIs minister Thomas Cromwell. Little is known of the first 40 years of his life as only four of his letters survive alongside a summary of a speech he delivered in 1628. He became an Independent Puritan after undergoing a conversion in the 1630s. He was a religious man, a self-styled Puritan Moses. He was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon in 1628 and for Cambridge in the Short and he entered the English Civil War on the side of the Roundheads or Parliamentarians. Cromwell was one of the signatories of King Charles Is death warrant in 1649 and he was selected to take command of the English campaign in Ireland in 1649–1650. Cromwells forces defeated the Confederate and Royalist coalition in Ireland and occupied the country, during this period, a series of Penal Laws were passed against Roman Catholics, and a substantial amount of their land was confiscated. Cromwell also led a campaign against the Scottish army between 1650 and 1651, as a ruler, he executed an aggressive and effective foreign policy. He died from natural causes in 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, the Royalists returned to power in 1660, and they had his corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. In a 2002 BBC poll in Britain, Cromwell, sponsored by military historian Richard Holmes was selected as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time. However, his measures against Catholics in Scotland and Ireland have been characterised as genocidal or near-genocidal, Cromwell was born in Huntingdon on 25 April 1599 to Robert Cromwell and Elizabeth Steward. Katherine married Morgan ap William, son of William ap Yevan of Wales, Henry suggested to Sir Richard Williams, who was the first to use a surname in his family, that he use Cromwell, in honour of his uncle Thomas Cromwell. They had ten children, but Oliver, the child, was the only boy to survive infancy. Jasper was the uncle of Henry VII and great uncle of Henry VIII, Cromwells paternal grandfather Sir Henry Williams was one of the two wealthiest landowners in Huntingdonshire. Cromwells father Robert was of modest means but still a part of the gentry class, as a younger son with many siblings, Robert inherited only a house at Huntingdon and a small amount of land. This land would have generated an income of up to £300 a year, near the bottom of the range of gentry incomes, Cromwell himself in 1654 said, I was by birth a gentleman, living neither in considerable height, nor yet in obscurity. He was baptised on 29 April 1599 at St Johns Church and he went on to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, then a recently founded college with a strong Puritan ethos

6.
Archbishop of Dublin
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The Archbishop of Dublin is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel successions to the title, one in the Church of Ireland. The archbishop of each denomination also holds the title of Primate of Ireland, the diocese of Dublin was formally established by Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King of Dublin in 1028, and the first bishop, Dúnán, was consecrated in about the same year. The diocese of Dublin was subject to the Province of Canterbury until 1152, in 1214, the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough were united, which was confirmed by Pope Innocent III on 25 February 1216 and by Pope Honorius III on 6 October 1216. After the Reformation, there are apostolic successions of Church of Ireland, in the Church of Ireland From 1846 to 1977, the Church of Ireland diocese of Dublin and Glendalough was united with the see of Kildare. The current Church of Ireland archbishop is the Most Reverend Michael Jackson, Archbishop of the Diocese of Dublin, in the Roman Catholic Church Sometime after the Reformation, Glendalough was dropped from the Roman Catholic archdiocese title. Primate of Ireland, a held by each of the archbishops of Dublin Primate of All Ireland

7.
Markree Castle
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Markree Castle, in Collooney, County Sligo, Ireland is the ancestral seat of the Cooper family, partially moated by the River Unshin. Today it is a small family-run hotel, in 1663 Cornet Edward Cooper, who served under Cromwell when his army defeated the OBrien Clan, was allotted the original 14th-century Markree Castle and the surrounding lands. Until then, Markree had been a fortified outpost of the Irish McDonagh Clan, conor OBrien died in this battle, and Edward married his widow Marie Rua. With her two sons went to live at Dromoland Castle. One son, Donough, was left Dromoland and the other inherited Markree, Charles Cooper, the current owner, is a direct descendant of this son. Times remained turbulent and during an attempt by the English King James to regain the throne, the Catholic army occupied Markree Castle and the Coopers had to flee. In 1830, Col. Edward Joshua Cooper MP eldest son of Edward Synge Cooper MP, for a number of years Cooper’s telescope was the largest in the world. The observatory remained active until the death of Edward Henry Cooper MP in 1902, according to some sources Cecil F. Alexander wrote her famous hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful, while a guest there in 1848. The castle, as we see it today, dates from 1802 with exterior changes by the architect Francis Johnston and with changes made, mainly to the interior. Irelands lowest officially recognised air temperature, −19.1 °C, was measured at Markree Castle on 16 January 1881. The soldier and politician Bryan Cooper inherited the castle on the death of his father in 1902, after the Second World War the castle fell on hard times and stood empty and derelict for many years. In recent times, Markree Castle has operated as a hotel, run by Charles and Mary Cooper, in 2015, after four centuries, it finally changed hands and is now run by the Corscadden family. The 300-acre estate holds an array of life including red squirrels, otters. The entrance contains a staircase, which leads to a wonderful hall. On the landing, a stained glass window traces the Cooper family tree from Victorian times back to the time of King John. The dining room is decorated in Louis Philippe-style plasterwork, Markree Observatory Markree Castle website History of the Cauchoix objective

8.
Pierre Corneille
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Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Jean Racine and he continued to write well-received tragedies for nearly forty years. Corneille was born in Rouen, Normandy, France, to Marthe Le Pesant and Pierre Corneille and his younger brother, Thomas Corneille, also became a noted playwright. He was given a rigorous Jesuit education at the Collège de Bourbon where acting on the stage was part of the training, at 18 he began to study law but his practical legal endeavors were largely unsuccessful. Corneille’s father secured two magisterial posts for him with the Rouen department of Forests and Rivers, during his time with the department, he wrote his first play. It is unknown exactly when he wrote it, but the play, the actors approved of the work and made it part of their repertoire. The play was a success in Paris and Corneille began writing plays on a regular basis and he moved to Paris in the same year and soon became one of the leading playwrights of the French stage. His early comedies, starting with Mélite, depart from the French farce tradition by reflecting the elevated language, Corneille describes his variety of comedy as une peinture de la conversation des honnêtes gens. His first true tragedy is Médée, produced in 1635, the year 1634 brought more attention to Corneille. He was selected to write verses for the Cardinal Richelieu’s visit to Rouen, the Cardinal took notice of Corneille and selected him to be among Les Cinq Auteurs. The others were Guillaume Colletet, Boisrobert, Jean Rotrou, the five were selected to realize Richelieus vision of a new kind of drama that emphasized virtue. Richelieu would present ideas, which the writers would express in dramatic form, however, the Cardinals demands were too restrictive for Corneille, who attempted to innovate outside the boundaries defined by Richelieu. This led to contention between playwright and employer, after his initial contract ended, Corneille left Les Cinq Auteurs and returned to Rouen. In the years following this break with Richelieu, Corneille produced what is considered his finest play. Le Cid is based on the play Mocedades del Cid by Guillem de Castro, both plays were based on the legend of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a military figure in Medieval Spain. The original 1637 edition of the play was subtitled a tragicomedy, even though Le Cid was an enormous popular success, it was the subject of a heated argument over the norms of dramatic practice, known as the Querelle du Cid or The Quarrel of Le Cid. Cardinal Richelieus Académie française acknowledged the success, but determined that it was defective, in part because it did not respect the classical unities of time, place. The newly formed Académie was a body that asserted state control over cultural activity, although it usually dealt with efforts to standardize the French language, Richelieu himself ordered an analysis of Le Cid

9.
Theatre Royal, Dublin
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Over the centuries, there have been four theatres in Dublin called the Theatre Royal. Many such theatres had other names, the first Theatre Royal was opened by John Ogilby in 1662 in Smock Alley. Ogilby, who was the first Irish Master of the Revels, had run the New Theatre in Werburgh Street. This was the first custom-built theatre in the city and it opened in 1637 but was closed by the Puritans in 1641. The Restoration of the monarchy in Ireland in 1661 enabled Ogilby to resume his position as Master of the Revels and this Theatre Royal was essentially under the control of the administration in Dublin Castle and staged mainly pro-Stuart works and Shakespearean classics. In the 18th century, the theatre was managed for a time by the actor-manager Thomas Sheridan, father of playwright, Thomas Sheridan managed to attract major stars of the London stage, including David Garrick and the Dublin-born Peg Woffington. Charlotte Melmoth, later to become The Grande Dame of Tragedy on the American Stage began her career at Smock Alley. The theatre was knocked down and rebuilt in 1735 and closed in 1787, the building saw many different uses in the course of its history. In 1811, after the closure of two churches, it became the Church of St. Michael and St. Johns. In 2012, Smock Alley Theatre was reopened and now offers a range of theatrical and musical events. The reinstated theatre is now home to the Gaiety School of Acting, in 1820, Henry Harris bought a site in Hawkins Street and built the 2, 000-seater Albany New Theatre on it at a cost of £50,000, designed by architect Samuel Beazley. This theatre opened in January of the following year, in August, George IV attended a performance at the Albany and, as a consequence, a patent was granted. The name of the theatre was changed to the Theatre Royal to reflect its status as a patent theatre, the building work was not completed at the time of opening and early audience figures were so low that a number of side seating boxes were boarded up. Wellesleys overreaction, including charging three rioters with attempted murder, undermined his own credibility, in 1830, Harris retired from the theatre and a Mr Calcraft took on the lease. This theatre attracted a number of performers, including Paganini, Jenny Lind, Tyrone Power. By 1851, the theatre was experiencing problems and closed briefly. It reopened in December under John Harris, who had been manager of the rival Queens Theatre, the first production under Harris was a play by Dion Boucicault. Boucicault and his wife were to make their first Dublin personal appearances in the Royal in 1861 in his The Colleen Bawn

10.
Parliament of England
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The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Over the centuries, the English Parliament progressively limited the power of the English monarchy which arguably culminated in the English Civil War, the Act of Union 1707 merged the English Parliament with the Parliament of Scotland to form the Parliament of Great Britain. When the Parliament of Ireland was abolished in 1801, its members were merged into what was now called the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Under a monarchical system of government, monarchs usually must consult, early kings of England had no standing army or police, and so depended on the support of powerful subjects. The monarchy had agents in every part of the country, however, under the feudal system that evolved in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the laws of the Crown could not have been upheld without the support of the nobility and the clergy. The former had economic and military bases of their own through major ownership of land. The Church was virtually a law unto itself in this period as it had its own system of law courts. In order to seek consultation and consent from the nobility and the clergy on major decisions. A typical Great Council would consist of archbishops, bishops, abbots, barons and earls, when this system of consultation and consent broke down, it often became impossible for government to function effectively. The most prominent instances of prior to the reign of Henry III are the disagreements between Thomas Becket and Henry II and between King John and the barons. Becket, who served as Archbishop of Canterbury between 1162 and 1170, was murdered following a long running dispute with Henry II over the jurisdiction of the Church. John, who was king from 1199 to 1216, aroused such hostility from many leading noblemen that they forced him to agree to Magna Carta in 1215, johns refusal to adhere to this charter led to civil war. The Great Council evolved into the Parliament of England, the term itself came into use during the early 13th century, deriving from the Latin and French words for discussion and speaking. The word first appears in documents in the 1230s. As a result of the work by historians G. O. Sayles and H. G. Richardson, during the 13th and 14th centuries, the kings began to call Knights of the Shire to meet when the monarch saw it as necessary. A notable example of this was in 1254 when sheriffs of counties were instructed to send Knights of the Shire to parliament to advise the king on finance, initially, parliaments were mostly summoned when the king needed to raise money through taxes. Following the Magna Carta this became a convention and this was due in no small part to the fact that King John died in 1216 and was succeeded by his young son Henry III. Leading peers and clergy governed on Henrys behalf until he came of age, among other things, they made sure that Magna Carta would be reaffirmed by the young king

11.
Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland)
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The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh. Like his counterpart the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, he bears the title Primate of All Ireland, in Irish times, the primacy of Armagh was questioned only by the great southern centre of the Irish Church, at Cashel. Brian Boru recognized the supremacy of Armagh, possibly in a move to gain support from Armagh for Borus claim to the High Kingship. Another noteworthy incumbent was St. Malachy OMorgair, who suffered many tribulations in trying to effect a reformation in the diocese, St. Malachy is honoured as the patron saint of the diocese. When the English kings got a footing in the country, they began to intervene in the election of bishops, the English kings also began to claim possession of the temporalities of the sees during vacancies and to insist on the newly elected bishops suing them humbly for their restitution. Thereupon the king in 1552, appointed Hugh Goodacre to the see and he survived his consecration only three months. In the beginning of the reign of Mary I, Dowdall was again appointed to the see on account of the zeal he had shown against Protestantism. Adam Loftus, from whom the Church of Ireland hierarchy derive their orders, was consecrated by Hugh Curwin, Archbishop of Dublin. He left his library, comprising several thousand printed books and manuscripts, to Trinity College, Dublin. His judgment against toleration of Roman Catholics, i. e. John Bramhall, another learned divine and his works on polemic and other subjects have been published in four folio volumes. Richard Robinson raised Armagh by his munificence from extreme decay to a state of opulence and he built an episcopal headquarters, a public library, an infirmary, and an observatory. Lord John George Beresford was also distinguished by his munificence and he restored Armagh Cathedral and is said to have spent £280,000 in acts of public benevolence. The following is a basic list of the Church of Ireland archbishops of Armagh

12.
Katherine Philips
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Katherine or Catherine Philips, also known as Orinda, was an Anglo-Welsh poet, translator, and woman of letters. She achieved renown as translator of Pierre Corneilles Pompée and Horace, born in London, Katherine Philips was daughter of John Fowler, a Presbyterian merchant of Bucklersbury, London. Philips is said to have read the Bible through before she was five years old, additionally, she acquired remarkable fluency in several languages. She broke with Presbyterian traditions in both religion and politics, and became an ardent admirer of the king and his church policy, in 1647, when she was sixteen, she married a Welsh Parliamentarian named James Philips who was thought to be 54 years old. However, the certificate has since proved that he was actually 24 years old. The Society of Friendship had its origins in the cult of Neoplatonic love imported from the continent in the 1630s by Charles Is French wife, members adopted pseudonyms drawn from French pastoral romances of Cavalier dramas. With wit, elegance, and clarity, Philips dramatised in her Society of Friendship the ideals, as well as the realities and tribulations, thus the Society helped establish a literary standard for her generation and Orinda herself as a model for the female writers who followed her. The Matchless Orinda, as her admirers called her, was regarded as the apostle of female friendship and she was widely considered an exemplar of the ideal woman writer, virtuous, proper, and chaste. She was frequently contrasted to the more daring Aphra Behn, to the latters detriment and her poems, frequently occasional, typically celebrate the refined pleasures of platonic love. In 1664, an edition of her poetry entitled Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. was published, in March 1664, Philips travelled to London with a nearly completed translation of Corneilles Horace, but died of smallpox. After her death, in 1667 an authorised edition of her poetry was printed entitled Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the edition included her translations of Pompée and Horace. The literary atmosphere of her circle is preserved in the excellent Letters of Orinda to Poliarchus, Poliarchus was master of the ceremonies at the court of the Restoration, and afterwards translated the romances of La Calprenède. Philips had two children, one of whom, Katharine, became the wife of a Lewis Wogan of Boulston, according to Gosse, Philips may have been the author of a volume of Female Poems. Written by Ephelia, which are in the style of Orinda, Philipss translations and poems consider questions of political authority and express her royalist beliefs. Her works also consider the nature and value of friendship between women, there have been speculations about whether, and in what way, her work could be described as lesbian. Certainly her representations of female friendship are intense, even passionate, however, there are many critics who do not think that Philips had homo-erotic tendencies. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Philips. The Bloomsbury Guide to Womens Literature, British Women Writers, a critical reference guide